Why is IE9 so bad?

I've tried every major browser, and IE9 is the only one that's unreliable - no other browser shows 'webpage is not responding' so frequently on routine sites.

IE's rendering model is also very irritating - e.g. I'm booking a flight and I see a message - "IE has blocked a popup, click here to ...". Try to open the popup and it does a full refresh of the page losing your state and the information you had, instead of just opening the blocked popup.

Then there's the stupid 'allow all content' error message. I know what it means and how to disable it, but the message gives no meaningful information, and ordinary users shouldn't have to make these decisions.

With IE10 Microsoft is pushing Metro which means even less usability than the current UI. I really don't see anything IE does better than other browsers other than the fact its built-in.

 

Your ranting seems trivial. Although I don't use IE9 as much as I use Firefox Portable and QtWeb, I still regard it a very good browser.

Check:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/compare-browsers?T1=tab01
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/compare-browsers?T1=tab2.

Also read:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/internet-explorer-9-final.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369160,00.asp

 

'Metro' is starting to sound a bit dodgy to me. I hope Windows 8 doesn't end up looking like the new BBC Homepage.

Otherwise I will be going Mac or Linux for my next computer.

To be fair, IE 9 64 bit is pretty zippy on Win 7.

 

Whether by choice or not, it sounds like you may have some faulty addons loading. I suggest you go into Start > Accessories > and launch "Internet Explorer (No Addons)".

 

That's not the cause as I have the same issue with no add ons. I also know others with the same issue and I'm sure MS is aware of it by now. It's an annoyance but I just refresh the page.

 

The popup blocker can be disabled in the configuration.

 

Are you using the latest GPU drivers?

 

IE9 here on windows 7 no issues what so ever.

 

Defcon, I think the problem is with the software developers at Microsoft. In my opinion they clearly don't have end users in mind, but seem to be more interested in what their peers think. The Mozilla and Google folks are getting to be just as bad.

 

There may be more than a grain of truth in that.

 

Yes. As I said "Web page not responding" is just a minor intermittant annoyance for me although I know people who have switched browsers because of it. I really just wanted to comfirm that it's not all just in the OP's head.

 

MS did the very same thing every other major browser did for a while, try to be like Chrome as much as possible. That's not ignoring users, that's just business. Mozilla is actually steering away from that now though, they're starting to care more about their own ways and tightening up performance. I personally think Chrome, if they stay the way they are at Google, will actually start falling in share again.

As far as complaints about Metro, yes, it's crap to me, but I do believe that unless you use it on a mobile device/tablet that you'll never see it. As to the original question, I do personally think there is a lot of "old IE" left in 9, what with the little messages and such the OP is talking about. As far as actual performance issues, the only thing I ever notice is that Flash has a tendency to crash and/or just show white blank boxes where video should be. It has nothing to do with the GPU, that much I've figured out over time.

 

The only browser I use that occasionally won't load pages is Chrome. IE and Firefox always work in that regard.

IE 9 works fine for me except the stupid add-ons query that pops up way too often (even though you tell it to leave you a lone!) I don't care for the looks of the GUI but that's a personal thing...

 

I have noticed that Chrome/Iron doesn't render some pages well. I have had some Wikipedia pages distorted in some way, even taking into account I often use Stylish on Wikipedia.

Yes, that pop-up is a pain. As far as the aesthetics of the GUI go, I agree. It looks a bit better than IE 7/8 though IMO.

 

I blame the looks on Chrome, which started the whole 'tabs in title bar, minimal UI, combine url and search' nonsense that every browser is now copying.

 

A Brave statement, but in all fairness, IE9 can be somewhat testy at certain intervals of browsing, but too few issues to get excited about.

 

im using windows 8 64 bit preview, takes some getting used to but seems quite gd though lots of different menu but one similar to the normal windows .i think one of the menu is for the touch screen as shows all programmes as apps if honest and ie 10 is much more stable than ie 9 even though it is a beta. one thing to make sure of is to back up all files as my system image has been wiped out lol

 

I agree that Chrome (Chromium) started a minimalist trend, but I'm pretty sure IE 7's GUI was older than Chrome's design & IE 7/8 was unattractive IMO. IE 9 is a bit of an improvement.

 

Many IE9 users I know have faced problems with some Facebook Games.
Some of these users tried Chrome, but they faced page-rendering problems (like This one)...

 

Yes, this rendering problem is one of the reasons I'm so glad Fx is working well now. Iron is the same on this issue as Chrome, so I assume it is a Chromium problem.

 

Not brave just a fact statement.I have not had any errors on sites visited but then again I do not go surfing hundreds of sites a day.I had more problems with third party browsers then I every did with IE.That being said, all browser are sucky at times and need a good kick in the ***

 

I've encountered occasional issues of various sorts with every browser I've used, inluding my present incumbent IE9. Overall I prefer IE because it affords a mostly pleasing and troublefree user experience - comparable to or better than competing browsers I've used - plus it's already included in the O/S.

 

I never have figured out why Chrome renders a lot of pages badly, but you're right, it does. Most of what I see is cut off pages and overlapping of text/images on a page.

 

Depends on your definition, MS Answers would be a better place to ask something definitive.

 

The text/image overlapping is definitely a problem. I first noticed it on Wikipedia, at first I thought it was some form of extension interference (Stylish maybe), it can be quite annoying.